Czech Republichttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/czech-republic
en-usSun, 02 Aug 2015 16:31:35 -0400Sun, 02 Aug 2015 16:31:35 -0400The latest news on Czech Republic from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-czechs-want-a-240-million-radar-systems-from-israel-to-counter-russia-2015-6The Czechs want a $240 million radar systems from Israel to counter Russiahttp://www.businessinsider.com/the-czechs-want-a-240-million-radar-systems-from-israel-to-counter-russia-2015-6
Tue, 02 Jun 2015 10:12:00 -0400Tim Marcin
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/556db47f69bedd5544b23d10-1200-800/rtr43fne.jpg" border="0" alt="RTR43FNE"></p><p></p>
<p>The Czech government plans to buy 3-D mobile radars from Israeli manufacturer Elta Systems,<a href="http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/international/europe/2015/06/01/czech-military-eyes-elta-3d-radars/28312957/">reported</a> Defense News on Monday. The Czech Ministry of Defense has been in the market for new radars for about a year amid concerns that its old Soviet systems were perhaps susceptible to attacks from Russia.</p>
<p>The planned deal is a significant purchase for the Eastern European nation. The Czech government has proposed a 5.9 billion krona -- or $240 million -- acquisition. The deal would reportedly send the radars by 2017 and Elta would provide logistics support to the Czech military through 2040.</p>
<p>Elta is a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.iai.co.il/17887-en/Groups_ELTA.aspx" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">subsidiary&nbsp;</a>of Israeli Aerospace Industries that produces defense electronics. Should the deal go through, the Israeli company would work with Czech defense company Retia, with at least 40 percent of the contract handled by the Czech defense industry, a Retia representative said, according to Defense News.</p>
<p>The Czech, Slovak and Hungarian governments announced last year a project to jointly supply the countries' armed forces with new radars, Defense News&nbsp;<a href="http://mobile.defensenews.com/article/309100042" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">reported&nbsp;</a>in September 2014. All three militaries were looking to replace Soviet-built P-37 radars.&nbsp;The change was reportedly designed to make military cooperation among the forces easier and to ensure the systems couldn't be penetrated by the Russian military. The Czech government later decided to seek new radars on its own.</p>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/556db93feab8eafa343daf54-1140-709/czech-2.png" border="0" alt="czech"></p>
<p>Tensions concerning Russia, especially among Eastern European countries, have been growing since last year. NATO, which carried out a&nbsp;<a href="http://ibtimes.com/nato-holds-military-exercises-baltic-states-amid-increased-russian-activity-1947206">large military exercise</a>&nbsp;in Eastern Europe on Monday, has upped its presence amid increased Russian activity and the country's purported involvement in the ongoing conflict between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russia separatists.</p>
<p>The death toll has climbed to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/ukraine-conflict-death-toll-surpasses-6400-amid-new-evidence-russian-military-1946761">more than 6,400</a>&nbsp;people since the conflict began in April 2014. The Kremlin has denied being involved, but a recent United Nations&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Media.aspx?IsMediaPage=true&amp;LangID=E" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">report</a>&nbsp;said it found evidence Russia is supporting the rebels.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-is-about-to-start-construction-on-new-iranian-nuke-plant-2015-6" >Russia is about to start construction on new Iranian nuke plant</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-czechs-want-a-240-million-radar-systems-from-israel-to-counter-russia-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ian-bremmer-vladimir-putin-most-powerful-man-world-2015-5">Why Putin is the most powerful man in the world </a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-czechs-stopped-a-61-million-deal-that-wouldve-put-a-large-shipment-of-nuclear-technology-in-irans-hands-2015-5The Czechs stopped a $61 million deal that would've put a 'large shipment' of nuclear technology in Iran's handshttp://www.businessinsider.com/the-czechs-stopped-a-61-million-deal-that-wouldve-put-a-large-shipment-of-nuclear-technology-in-irans-hands-2015-5
Wed, 13 May 2015 22:00:00 -0400Louis Charbonneau and Robert Muller
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/555400d96da8117822e8a313-1200-924/ap650786621162-6.jpg" border="0" alt="AP650786621162"></p><p>UNITED NATIONS/PRAGUE&nbsp;(Reuters) - The&nbsp;Czech Republic&nbsp;blocked an attempted purchase by Iran this year of a large shipment of sensitive technology useable for nuclear enrichment after false documentation raised suspicions, U.N. experts and Western sources said.</p>
<p>The incident could add to Western concerns about whether&nbsp;Tehran&nbsp;can be trusted to adhere to a nuclear deal being negotiated with world powers under which it would curb sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief.</p>
<p>The negotiators are trying to reach a deal by the end of June after hammering out a preliminary agreement on April 2, with Iran committing to reduce the number of centrifuges it operates and agreeing to other long-term nuclear limitations.</p>
<p>Some details of the attempted purchase were described in the latest annual report of an expert panel for the&nbsp;United Nations Security Council's Iran sanctions committee, which has been seen by Reuters.</p>
<p>The panel said that in January Iran attempted to buy compressors - which have nuclear and non-nuclear applications - made by the U.S.-owned company&nbsp;Howden CKD Compressors.</p>
<p>A Czech state official and a Western diplomat familiar with the case confirmed to Reuters that Iran had attempted to buy the shipment from Howden CKD in the&nbsp;Czech Republic, and that Czech authorities had acted to block the deal.</p>
<p>It was not clear if any intermediaries were involved in the attempt to acquire the machinery.</p>
<p>There was no suggestion that Howden CKD itself was involved in any wrongdoing. Officials at&nbsp;Prague-based Howden declined to comment on the attempted purchase.</p>
<p>The U.N. panel, which monitors compliance with the U.N. sanctions regime, said there had been a "false end user" stated for the order.</p>
<p>"The procurer and transport company involved in the deal had provided false documentation in order to hide the origins, movement and destination of the consignment with the intention of bypassing export controls and sanctions," it added.</p>
<p>The report offered no further details about the attempted transaction. Iran's U.N. mission did not respond to a query about the report.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span></p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/550cbacaecad044f227c008a-1200-924/rtxrbvd.jpg" border="0" alt="Iran nuclear reactor" style="line-height: 1.5em;"></p>
<h2>Contract worth $61 million</h2>
<p>The Czech state official said the party seeking the compressors had claimed the machinery was needed for a compressor station, such as the kind used to transport natural gas from one relay station to another.</p>
<p>The official declined to say exactly how the transaction was stopped, provide specifications of the compressors or confirm the intended purchaser. However, he made clear it was the Czech authorities who halted the deal</p>
<p>The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the total value of the contract would have been about 1.5 billion Czech koruna ($61 million).</p>
<p>This was a huge amount for the company concerned, the previously named&nbsp;CKD Kompresory, a leading supplier of multi-stage centrifugal compressors to the oil and gas, petrochemical and other industries.</p>
<p>The firm was acquired by&nbsp;Colfax&nbsp;Corp. of the&nbsp;United States&nbsp;in 2013 for $69.4 million. A spokesman for&nbsp;Colfax declined to comment.</p>
<p>The&nbsp;United States&nbsp;and its Western allies say Iran continues to try to skirt international sanctions on its atomic and missile programs even while negotiating the nuclear deal.</p>
<p>The U.N. panel of experts also noted in its report that Britain informed it of an active Iranian nuclear procurement network linked to blacklisted firms.</p>
<p>While compressors have non-nuclear applications in the oil and gas industry, they also have nuclear uses, including in centrifuge cascades. Centrifuges purify uranium gas fed into them for use as fuel in nuclear reactors or weapons, if purified to levels of around 90 percent of the fissile isotope uranium-235.</p>
<p>"Such compressors can be used to extract enriched uranium directly from the cascades,"&nbsp;Olli Heinonen, former deputy director-general of the&nbsp;International Atomic Energy Agency&nbsp;and a nuclear expert currently at&nbsp;Harvard University, told Reuters.</p>
<p>"In particular, they are useful when working with higher enrichment such as 20 percent enriched uranium," he said, adding that precise specifications of the compressors in question would be necessary to make a definitive assessment.</p>
<p>Iran has frozen production of 20 percent enriched uranium, a move that Western officials cite as one of the most important curbs on Iranian nuclear activities under an interim agreement in 2013.</p>
<p>Tehran&nbsp;rejects allegations by Western powers and their allies that it is seeking the capability to produce atomic weapons and says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.</p>
<p>The IAEA and the&nbsp;United States&nbsp;have said repeatedly that&nbsp;Tehran&nbsp;has adhered to the terms of the 2013 interim deal.</p>
<p>(Editing by David Storey and Stuart Grudgings)</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-czechs-stopped-a-61-million-deal-that-wouldve-put-a-large-shipment-of-nuclear-technology-in-irans-hands-2015-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-after-black-widow-spider-bite-poison-2015-4">Here's what happens when you get bitten by a black widow</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/these-photos-show-how-crazy-may-day-used-to-be-during-the-cold-war-2015-5These photos show how crazy May Day used to be during the Cold Warhttp://www.businessinsider.com/these-photos-show-how-crazy-may-day-used-to-be-during-the-cold-war-2015-5
Fri, 01 May 2015 15:52:02 -0400Armin Rosen
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5543baeeeab8ea395301cee6-1200-800/ap610502018.jpg" border="0" alt="May Day parade"></p><p>The Cold War is long over and, unless you're a labor organizer or a communist, May 1st is probably just another day on the calendar.</p>
<p>But for decades, "<a href="http://www.iww.org/history/library/misc/origins_of_mayday">I</a><a href="http://www.iww.org/history/library/misc/origins_of_mayday">nternational Workers Day</a>" was an opportunity for the Soviet-aligned bloc to show off its military hardware.</p>
<p>In leftist and Soviet-allied regimes around the world, dictators would send their militaries into major public areas in ostentatious shows of authority and force. There was some irony in these over-the-top celebrations: In the course of heralding the ideological underpinnings of Soviet-allied regimes, those governments only demonstrated how rapidly communist regimes had morphed into brutal military dictatorships.</p>
<p>Here are some of the best pictures we found of May 1st military parades from the Cold War period.</p><h3>The Soviets would roll out their big guns for May Day. Here, 2 intercontinental ballistic missiles made their way across Red Square in 1968.</h3>
<img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5543b8296bb3f7493501cee0-400-300/the-soviets-would-roll-out-their-big-guns-for-may-day-here-2-intercontinental-ballistic-missiles-made-their-way-across-red-square-in-1968.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>Tanks and rocket launchers would stream through the center of the Soviet capital ...</h3>
<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5543b87aeab8ea914601cedf-400-300/tanks-and-rocket-launchers-would-stream-through-the-center-of-the-soviet-capital-.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>... along with nuclear-capable missiles, like these, which also appeared at the 1968 parade.</h3>
<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5543b7826bb3f7553401cedf-400-300/-along-with-nuclear-capable-missiles-like-these-which-also-appeared-at-the-1968-parade.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/these-photos-show-how-crazy-may-day-used-to-be-during-the-cold-war-2015-5#anti-american-messages-made-their-way-into-the-may-day-parades-as-well-such-as-during-this-parade-in-early-1980s-moscow-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/at-least-8-people-killed-in-czech-pub-shooting-2015-2At least 8 people killed in Czech pub shootinghttp://www.businessinsider.com/at-least-8-people-killed-in-czech-pub-shooting-2015-2
Tue, 24 Feb 2015 10:36:00 -0500AFP and Amanda Macias
<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/54ec98276da811312c09bdf5-894-506/screen shot 2015-02-24 at 10.26.02 am.png" border="0" alt="czech shooting">An armed man killed nine people on Tuesday after storming into a pub and opening fire in the eastern Czech town of Uhersky Brod, state television said.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Czech mayor Patrik Kuncar said the shooter was a man around 60 years old and was killed in the attack, the <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/168fb416b841447d870ccc9890198bbc/mayor-8-dead-czech-restaurant-shooting" target="_blank">Associated Press reports</a>.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_9_1_1_1424791022130_1124">"According to our information, there are nine dead on the spot," Czech television channel Ceska Televize (CT) said.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The area surrounding the pub has been cordoned off, and traffic is being diverted.</span></p>
<p>Police spokesman Pavel Benedikt Stransky refused to confirm the information but said the gunman "has already been subdued."</p>
<p>Here are some Tweets:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en" data-conversation="none">
<p>UPDATE: 8 killed in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Czech?src=hash">#Czech</a> pub shooting – Interior Ministry <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UherskyBrod?src=hash">#UherskyBrod</a> <a href="http://t.co/HjleA4Kec8">http://t.co/HjleA4Kec8</a> <a href="http://t.co/qLeywPrXOM">pic.twitter.com/qLeywPrXOM</a></p>
— RT (@RT_com) <a href="https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/570236853590355968">February 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Breaking: Scene of restaurant shooting in town of Uhersky Brod, Czech Republic. 8 dead, "subdued" <a href="http://t.co/lRDIv9p2FY">pic.twitter.com/lRDIv9p2FY</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CT24zive">@CT24zive</a></p>
— Lisa Daftari (@LisaDaftari) <a href="https://twitter.com/LisaDaftari/status/570235122072592384">February 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Nine killed in restaurant shooting in Eastern <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Czech?src=hash">#Czech</a> republic – TV <a href="http://t.co/YKCCOGLCFE">http://t.co/YKCCOGLCFE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UherskyBrod?src=hash">#UherskyBrod</a> <a href="http://t.co/qsSHm6CUcG">pic.twitter.com/qsSHm6CUcG</a></p>
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) <a href="https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/570240579545669632">February 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>nine people have been killed in a shooting in a restaurant in Uhersky Brod in the Czech Republic <a href="http://t.co/0uDtfirSdP">pic.twitter.com/0uDtfirSdP</a></p>
— #BJP Uttar Pradesh (@BJPLucknowBJP) <a href="https://twitter.com/BJPLucknowBJP/status/570233873310748673">February 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/at-least-8-people-killed-in-czech-pub-shooting-2015-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trailer-point-and-shoot-documentary-libyan-revolution-2015-2">This 26-year-old from Baltimore took a 35,000-mile road trip and ended up fighting in the Libyan revolution</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/r-czech-secret-service-sees-extremely-high-number-of-russian-spies-2014-10Czech Secret Service: There Is An 'Extremely High' Number Of Russian Spies In The Embassyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/r-czech-secret-service-sees-extremely-high-number-of-russian-spies-2014-10
Mon, 27 Oct 2014 09:07:00 -0400
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/542d62e6ecad04ad649a74fa-1200-924/putin-earpiece-moscow-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Putin Earpiece Moscow"></p><p>PRAGUE (Reuters) - Russia deployed an "extremely high" number of intelligence officers at its Czech embassy last year, the NATO member country's secret service said in an annual report released on Monday.</p>
<p>The reported increase in spying comes as relations between Russia and the West have worsened, culminating in the Ukraine crisis that began a year ago with street demonstrations against pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich.</p>
<p>Czech spy-watchers have long warned about Russian intelligence services activities in the central European country, a member of the European Union, which is popular with Russians who often travel to and buy property in the country.</p>
<p>The Security Information Service (BIS) said Russian and Chinese spies in the Czech Republic work mostly to use politicians or journalists to extend their influence and secure their countries' economic interests.</p>
<p>"Both the Russian and the Chinese embassy employ intelligence officers serving under diplomatic cover. In 2013, the number of such officers at the Russian embassy was extremely high," the BIS report said.</p>
<p>Other intelligence officers traveled to the Czech Republic individually as tourists, experts, academics or businessmen.</p>
<p>"Russian intelligence services attempted to make use of both open and covert political, media and societal influence to promote Russian economic interests in the Czech Republic," the report said.</p>
<p>Russian intelligence activity previously jumped in 2007, when the Czech Republic and the United States held negotiations on building a missile defense radar in the country. The plan was eventually canceled by President Barack Obama's administration after also running into opposition in the Czech parliament.</p>
<p>The current center-left Czech government has taken a cautious approach as relations between Western countries and Russia have deteriorated this year over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis.</p>
<p>A number of Czech officials have spoken against sanctions imposed by Brussels -- for which Russia has retaliated by banning food imports from Europe -- although the government has backed the EU's actions.</p>
<p>Yanukovich's overthrow in February prompted Moscow to annexe the Crimea peninsula and back separatist rebellions in eastern Ukraine in which more than 3,700 people have died.</p>
<p>The BIS has in the past warned of Russian intelligence officers building networks in the country using Czech citizens as well as the local Russian community.</p>
<p>The Polish government said on Saturday it had withdrawn accreditation from a Russian journalist after arresting two Poles, including a military officer, earlier this month on suspicion of spying for Russia.</p>
<p>The BIS said rejecting Czech visas or accreditation for Russians with ties to the intelligence services had led to cases of retaliation against Czech career diplomats.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Catherine Evans)</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-end-of-the-swedish-sub-hunt-2014-10" >Sweden's epic hunt for a 'Russian' sub shows Europe is terrified of Putin</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-czech-secret-service-sees-extremely-high-number-of-russian-spies-2014-10#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-artist-sends-subtle-message-to-politicians-with-floating-artwork-2013-10Czech Artist Sends Subtle Message To Politicians With Floating Artworkhttp://www.businessinsider.com/czech-artist-sends-subtle-message-to-politicians-with-floating-artwork-2013-10
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 10:15:45 -0400Adam Taylor
<p>It's election time in the Czech Republic, with parliamentary polls due to open this week.</p>
<p>Artist David Cerny has chosen to celebrate the occasion with a subtle artwork placed on the River Vltava.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/526685656bb3f7fe0f05924f-1200-/rtx14id9.jpg" border="0" alt="Prague Artwork Middle Finger" width="1200" /></p>
<p>The BBC's Rob Cameron <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24607870">says that the artwork</a> appears to be a message to leftist President Milos Zeman and his supporters (the artwork faces the Prague Castle, seat of the president). However, Cerny is refusing to comment, saying the artwork speaks for itself.</p>
<p>In September, Cerny <a href="http://www.praguepost.com/news/17323-cerny-flips-bird-at-czech-prez.html">spoke to The Prague Post about Zeman</a>, and his comments weren't positive. "Our president is just another reason not to live in the Czech Republic," he told the paper. "The political system here is not good, most people know that. I think I'd be happy to live in New York and not come back. I mean, I would come back, maybe for like three months in the year or something."</p>
<p>The Prague Post reports that Zeman is out of the country at the moment.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-artist-sends-subtle-message-to-politicians-with-floating-artwork-2013-10#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-ambassador-czech-republic-not-chechnya-2013-4Czech Ambassador Issues Statement To End Confusion Between Czech Republic And Chechnyahttp://www.businessinsider.com/czech-ambassador-czech-republic-not-chechnya-2013-4
Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:21:00 -0400Dina Spector
<p class="article_perex"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5172bb61eab8eaf60c000011-400-/eu-czechia.svg.png" border="0" alt="The czech Republic" width="400" />The Boston bombing suspects, brothers&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-2013-4">Dzhokhar and Tamerlan&nbsp;Tsarnaev</a>,<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;are from a region of Russia known as Chechnya. </span></p>
<p class="article_perex"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Some in the social media world have confused this republic with the similar sounding Czech Republic, which is actually some 2,000 miles away in Central Europe.</span></p>
<p class="article_perex"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mzv.cz/washington/en/czech_u_s_relations/news/statement_of_the_ambassador_of_the_czech.html" target="_blank">Czech ambassador to the United States has issued a statement to clear up any confusion between the Czech Republic and Chechnya</a>.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="article_perex"><span>"The Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation,"&nbsp;<span>Petr Gandalovič writes.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p class="article_perex"><span><span></span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Read</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;Gandalovič's</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;full statement below:</span></p>
<p class="article_perex" style="padding-left: 30px;">As many I was deeply shocked by the tragedy that occurred in Boston earlier this month. It was a stark reminder of the fact that any of us could be a victim of senseless violence anywhere at any moment.</p>
<p class="article_perex" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">As more information on the origin of the alleged perpetrators is coming to light, I am concerned to note in the social media a most unfortunate misunderstanding in this respect. The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities - the Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation.</span></p>
<p class="article_perex" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">As the President of the Czech Republic Milo&scaron; Zeman noted in his message to President Obama, the Czech Republic is an active and reliable partner of the United States in the fight against terrorism. We are determined to stand side by side with our allies in this respect, there is no doubt about that.</span></p>
<p class="article_perex" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Petr Gandalovič</span></p>
<p class="article_perex" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Ambassador of the Czech Republic</span></p>
<p class="article_perex"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Here's a map, where the Czech republic is denoted by the blue bubble and&nbsp;<span>Chechnya by the red.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p class="article_perex"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5172c3abecad04893f000042-797-511/screen%20shot%202013-04-20%20at%2012.33.11%20pm.png" border="0" alt="Czech Republic" width="618" /><br /></span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-ambassador-czech-republic-not-chechnya-2013-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/vladimir-franz-coming-3rd-in-czech-polls-2013-1Czech Presidential Candidate Coming Third In Polls Despite The Tattoos That Cover His Entire Facehttp://www.businessinsider.com/vladimir-franz-coming-3rd-in-czech-polls-2013-1
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:17:00 -0500Adam Taylor
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/501a8823ecad048b7f00001e-401-405/552667_362491373820831_977495549_n.jpg" border="0" alt="Vladimir Franz Czech Election" width="401" height="405" /></p><p>Back in August, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vladimir-franz-is-the-most-exciting-candidate-in-the-2013-czech-election-so-far-2012-8">we brought you the news of Vladimir Franz</a>, a university teacher, painter and composer, who had announced that he was planning to run for President in the Czech Republic's 2013 elections.</p>
<p>Franz, who at that point still needed to collect 50,000 signatures to run, was apparently a relatively normal candidate policy wise, but his apperence was certainly unusual &mdash; <strong>he has tattoos that cover his entire face and body, as well as a variety of piercings and a dye that makes his hair blue.</strong></p>
<p>Franz's unusual apperence doesn't seem to have hurt his chances though. Franz now commands 11.4 percent of the popular vote in opinion polls, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/face-tattoo-vladimir-franz-presidential-contender/story?id=18179968">according to ABC News</a>, making him the third most popular candidate (and a potential kingmaker).</p>
<p>Tonight Franz goes up against other candidates in a televised debate. The initial vote in the election is due to be held this weekend, with a runoff scheduled for the weekend of Jan. 25 and 26.</p>
<p>"My tattoos are my private little garden. They are not a handicap, they are added value," <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/face-tattoo-vladimir-franz-presidential-contender/story?id=18179968">Franz told ABC</a>. "Elections are not a beauty contest. It is all about tolerance."</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vladimir-franz-coming-3rd-in-czech-polls-2013-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/vclav-klaus-on-european-democracy-2012-9CZECH PRESIDENT: The Destruction of Europe's Democracy Is In Its Final Phasehttp://www.businessinsider.com/vclav-klaus-on-european-democracy-2012-9
Sun, 23 Sep 2012 06:11:27 -0400Bruno Waterfield
<p><em><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/4ce404e249e2aee7480b0000-400-300/vaclav-klaus.jpg" border="0" alt="vaclav klaus" />'Two-faced' politicians have opened the door to an EU superstate by giving up on democracy, V&aacute;clav Klaus, the veteran Czech statesman, tells Bruno Waterfield.</em></p>
<p>The new push for a European Union federation, complete with its own head of state and army, is the "final phase" of the destruction of democracy and the nation state, the president of the Czech Republic has warned.</p>
<p>In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, V&aacute;clav Klaus warns that "two-faced" politicians, including the Conservatives, have opened the door to an EU superstate by giving up on democracy, in a flight from accountability and responsibility to their voters.</p>
<p>"We need to think about how to restore our statehood and our sovereignty. That is impossible in a federation. The EU should move in an opposite direction," he said.</p>
<p>Last week, Germany, France and nine other of Europe's largest countries called for an end to national vetoes over defence policy as Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, urged the creation of a directly elected EU president "who personally appoints the members of his European government".</p>
<p>Mr Westerwelle, in a reference to British opposition, called for nation states to be stripped of vetoes on defence to "prevent one single member state from being able to obstruct initiatives" which "could eventually involve a European army".</p>
<p>The new offensive followed the unprecedented declaration by the Commission's president, Jos&eacute; Manuel Barroso, during his "state of union" address to the European Parliament on 12 September, that he would make proposals for a fully-fledged EU "federation" in 2014. "Let's not be afraid of the word," he said.</p>
<p>Speaking in Hradcany Castle, a complex of majestic buildings that soars above Prague, and is a symbol of Czech national identity, Mr Klaus described Mr Barroso's call for a federation, quickly followed by the German-led intervention, as an important turning point.</p>
<p>"This is the first time he has acknowledged the real ambitions of today's protagonists of a further deepening of European integration. Until today, people, like Mr Barroso, held these ambitions in secret from the European public," he said. "I'm afraid that Barroso has the feeling that the time is right to announce such an absolutely wrong development.</p>
<p>"They think they are finalising the concept of Europe, but in my understanding they are destroying it."</p>
<p>President Klaus, 71, is one of Europe's most experienced conservative politicians; he has served as his country's prime minister twice after winning national elections and will complete his second term as Czech President next year.</p>
<p>Frequently referred to as the "Margaret Thatcher of Central Europe", Mr Klaus was born in Nazi-occupied Prague, played a key role in the 1989 Velvet Revolution that overthrew Communism and became founder of the Czech Civic Democratic Party, which has remained in government for most of the Czech Republic's independence.</p>
<p>He reluctantly recommended Czech Republic membership of the EU in 2004 and five years later was the last European head of state to sign the Lisbon Treaty, delaying signature, under intense international pressure, until all legal and constitutional appeals had been exhausted against it in his country. "We were entering the EU, not a federation in which we would become a meaningless province," he said.</p>
<p>Mr Klaus is a courteous old-school European, a keen and frequent public speaker, who insists on an intellectual critique of ideas rather than the personal criticism that often substitutes for serious political debate today. To his "great regret" he finds himself a lone fighter for democracy among Europe's heads of state.</p>
<p>"When it comes to the political elites at the top of the countries, it is true, I am isolated," he said. "Especially after our Communist experience, we know, very strongly and possibly more than people in Western Europe, that the process of democracy is more important than the outcome.</p>
<p>"It is an irony of history, I would never have assumed in 1989, that I would be doing this now: that it would be my role to preach the value of democracy."</p>
<p>In his book, Europe: The Shattering of Illusions, to be published by Bloomsbury on Thursday, Mr Klaus makes the case that the EU has evolved into its current form because political leaders have found it convenient to turn away from their nation states, where voters have historically been able to hold them to account.</p>
<p>"Political elites have always known that the shift in decision-making from the national to the supranational level weakens the traditional democratic mechanisms (that are inseparable from the existence of the nation state), and this increases their power in a radical way. That is why they wanted this shift so badly in the past, and that is why they want it today," he writes.</p>
<p>"The authors of the concept of European integration managed to short circuit the minds of the people, making a link between Hitler's aggressive nationalism (nationalism of a totally negative type) and the traditional nation state, calling into question the existence of nation states in general. Of the many fatal mistakes and lies that have always underpinned the evolution of the EU, this is one of the worst."</p>
<p>Mr Klaus is genuinely baffled and aghast when describing his state visit to Italy last week, where he encountered what he called the "destructive mentality" of Italian politicians who were using the eurozone crisis to give up on democracy and to evade responsibility for running their country.</p>
<p>"It was really very depressing for me how many leading Italian politicians expressed the view that it is necessary to shift competences from Italy to Brussels because of one thing: they passively accept they are not able to make rational decisions themselves," he said. "They can now find the excuse or alibi that 'we are forced to do it'. I have never heard it before so explicitly or directly.</p>
<p>"It is a flight from accountability and responsibility. They have given up on the role and importance of democracy. That is the final and really tragic consequence."</p>
<p>With sadness, more than anger, he concludes that the Conservatives, in government under David Cameron, are no better than any other national politicians with "two faces", who "show one to their voters and the other when speaking in Brussels, at various EU summits and similar events."</p>
<p>"We see it best with the British Conservatives after Margaret Thatcher. With the full weight of public opinion behind them, sharply opposing the euro and any further transfer of powers to Brussels - winning many a vote thanks to this - as soon as they step on to the continent, their resolve to fight for these principles evaporates," he writes.</p>
<p>Speaking to <em>T</em>he Sunday Telegraph, he is too courteous as Czech head of state to criticise directly the Prime Minister's leadership, but is privately said to be despairing at his lack of fight at the EU summit table. "I would wish to return to the original position with the Conservative Party. I don't really wish to add to what I say in my book," he said.</p>
<p>After the collapse of Communism, conservatives in the Czech Republic found natural allies in their Britain counterparts under Baroness Thatcher - a relationship that has continued, with members of Mr Klaus's party sitting in the grouping led by British Conservatives in the European Parliament.</p>
<p>But Mr Klaus himself is beginning to think beyond that. As Czech president he cannot act unilaterally, but he expresses his personal support for the UK Independence Party, a relationship that became closer after a recent meeting with its leader Nigel Farage, and he hinted at possible plans when his second and last term of office ends next March.</p>
<p>"Involvement in an explicit way is at the moment out of the question. I suppose in the long run, but definitely not as president of this country," he said, adding: "I support many of their ideas."</p>
<p>Europe: The Shattering of Illusions by V&aacute;clav Klaus is published by Bloomsbury on 27 September 2012 (&pound;16.99)</p>
<p><img class="nc_pixel" src="http://pixel.newscred.com/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT0xZGY4YjM5M2NjNDg0N2RjMTYzYzVmMzgyMTgyNWE3YiZvd25lcj1hZWE2NjI4NzUzY2RjZGMzMjhkOTkzM2MwZTIwZDU4YyZub25jZT1iNDI5ZDBkMi02MWUwLTRhMzYtYTg0MS03NDhmNmRlOThkOTgmcHVibGlzaGVyPThjMDBmYmVlNjFkNWJjZjBjNjA5MmQ4YjkyZWJiY2Ex" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vclav-klaus-on-european-democracy-2012-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-republic-bans-hard-alcohol-2012-9The Czech Republic Has Banned Hard Alcoholhttp://www.businessinsider.com/czech-republic-bans-hard-alcohol-2012-9
Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:15:00 -0400AP
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/4f18948969bedd321c000002-400-300/vodka-alcohol-central-european-distribution-corp.gif" border="0" alt="Vodka Alcohol central european distribution corp" /></p><p>PRAGUE (AP) &mdash; The Czech Republic has taken an unprecedented emergency measure and banned the sale of spirits with more than 20 percent alcohol content as it battles a wave of methanol poisonings that has already killed 19 people.</p>
<p>Health Minister Leos Heger said Friday the ban was effective immediately and applies nationwide. It covers all possible sales locations, including restaurants, hotels, stores and the Internet.</p>
<p>Kiosks and markets had earlier been banned from selling spirits with more than 30 percent alcohol content, but Heger said the measure has not been effective enough because "an absolute majority" of people who have been poisoned bought the toxic alcohol in restaurants, bars and stores.</p>
<p>Heger said the ban could possibly take weeks. It is estimated that up to 20 percent of all the liquor in restaurants across the country is likely made on the black market</p>
<p>That the death toll from the poisonings reached 19 Friday after a 66-year-old woman was found dead in the northeastern city of Havirov and the first person was hospitalized in Prague also prompted the minister to take the step, Heger said in a brief statement late Friday.</p>
<p>Police said a 30-year man has been in critical condition in a Prague after buying toxic booze in a shop.</p>
<p>Dozens of people have been hospitalized, some in critical condition after drinking vodka and rum laced with methanol. The problem has appeared largely centered in northeastern Czech Republic.</p>
<p>Methanol is mainly used for industrial purposes, but unscrupulous criminal networks sometimes misuse it to illegally produce cheap liquor because it's cheap and impossible to distinguish from real drinking alcohol.</p>
<p>Labs all across the country have been testing round the clock samples of suspicion alcohol that has been seized during police raids.</p>
<p>Thousands of liters of illegal alcohol have been seized and almost 20 people arrested, but police spokeswoman Stepanka Zatloukalova said Friday it still wasn't clear what the sources are for the worst methanol poisoning "in decades."</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in Prague, restaurant manager Jonathan Weinstein said if the ban "were to last a month or two, of course, it's a big problem."</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-republic-bans-hard-alcohol-2012-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/an-electric-supercar-with-1088-hp-will-go-one-sale-in-2013-2012-9An Electric Supercar With 1,088 Horsepower Is About To Tear Up The Roadhttp://www.businessinsider.com/an-electric-supercar-with-1088-hp-will-go-one-sale-in-2013-2012-9
Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:03:00 -0400Alex Davies
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/504e0a086bb3f79306000000/rimac-conceptone-electric-supercar.jpg" border="0" alt="rimac concept_one electric supercar" /></p><p>Drivers won't know the next great supercar is nearby until it blows past them on the highway. Starting next year, the Concept_One, built by Croatian automaker Rimac, will be among the fastest electric cars on the road.</p>
<p>Its four motors <span class="st">&mdash;</span> one for each wheel <span class="st">&mdash; will produce a heart-stopping 1,088 horsepower, enough to propel it from zero to 62 mph in 2.8 seconds, and reach a top speed of 190 mph, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/video/pf/2012/09/06/wheels-electric-supercar-croatia-rimac.cnnmoney">according to CNN Money</a>. And it will do it all in silence, except for the sound of rubber burning into the asphalt.<br /></span></p>
<p>More impressive, or at least more important for an electric car, is the 373-mile range provided by a full charge. After all, driving at 200 mph loses some of its appeal when the joyride is limited to half an hour.</p>
<p>The Concept_One debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2011, and appeared this spring in Monaco and at the Concorso d'Eleganza, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-inside-the-most-exclusive-and-amazing-car-show-in-the-world-2012-5#">the world's most exclusive car show</a>.</p>
<p>Mate Rimac, owner of Rimac, is planning to sell around 15 vehicles per year, starting in early 2013. Even such a small sales target will bring in lots of cash: The Concept_One comes with a $980,000 sticker.</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/504e063c69bedd4c54000011/rimace-conceptone-electric-supercar.jpg" border="0" alt="rimace concept_one electric supercar" width="618" height="410" /></p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/504e065f6bb3f76d7a000023/rimac-conceptone-electric-supercar.jpg" border="0" alt="rimac concept_one electric supercar" width="618" height="412" /></p>
<h2><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/supercar-crashes-2012-4">Now check out heart-breaking photos of wrecked supercars &gt;</a></h2>
<p>[Via <a href="http://jalopnik.com/5941644/someone-might-actually-build-the-1088-hp-croatian-electric-supercar">Jalopnik</a>]</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/an-electric-supercar-with-1088-hp-will-go-one-sale-in-2013-2012-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/vladimir-franz-is-the-most-exciting-candidate-in-the-2013-czech-election-so-far-2012-8Meet The Most Exciting Candidate In The Czech Electionshttp://www.businessinsider.com/vladimir-franz-is-the-most-exciting-candidate-in-the-2013-czech-election-so-far-2012-8
Thu, 02 Aug 2012 10:08:00 -0400Adam Taylor
<p>Vladimir Franz, a university teacher, painter and composer, announced today that he is planning to run for President in the Czech Republic's 2013 elections, <a href="http://praguemonitor.com/2012/08/02/artist-franz-seek-post-czech-president">Prague Daily Monitor reports</a>.</p>
<p>Franz stands out from other candidates &mdash; he has tattoos that cover his entire face and body, as well as a variety of piercings and a dye that makes his hair blue.</p>
<p>Before he can compete in the elections, Franz must collect 50,000 signatures. Betting sites are not giving him good odds at present, but he is placing higher than some candidates. <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/xjnke/so_far_the_strangest_candidate_for_president_of/c5n0raq">One Reddit user says that despite his appearance, Franz's policies are actually strikingly normal (so far)</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=362491373820831&amp;set=a.360118117391490.76472.360112290725406&amp;type=1&amp;theater">Check out Franz's Facebook page here &gt;</a></p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/501a8823ecad048b7f00001e/vladimir-franz-czech-election.jpg" border="0" alt="Vladimir Franz Czech Election" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vladimir-franz-is-the-most-exciting-candidate-in-the-2013-czech-election-so-far-2012-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/david-rath-czechslovakia-2012-5This Czech Politician Has Been Arrested After Being Caught With $356,000 In Cash Hidden Inside A Wine Box http://www.businessinsider.com/david-rath-czechslovakia-2012-5
Mon, 21 May 2012 14:42:47 -0400Sanya Khetani
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4fba8a7feab8ead53c000006/daivd-rath-czech-minister-health.jpg" border="0" alt="daivd-rath-czech-minister-health" /></p><p>A former Czech health minister and regional governor was arrested last week for allegedly accepting bribes and embezzling EU funds, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18143575">the BBC</a> reports.</p>
<p>David Rath was caught with a wine box filled with seven million koruna (about $356,000).</p>
<p><span>Rath claims he was framed, saying he didn&rsquo;t know the box had money in it, and the whole incident seemed like the &ldquo;social execution of a politician". But since the police found another</span>&nbsp;30 million koruna (about $1.5 million) under the floorboards of Rath&rsquo;s house (according to <a href="http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/defiant-david-rath-remains-in-police-custody">Radio Prague</a>),&nbsp;that doesn't sound very likely.</p>
<p>While parliamentarians have immunity from prosecution, Czech law states that an MP caught red-handed can be arrested and stripped of his or her immunity. The Chamber of Deputies will decide if Rath can be prosecuted at its session that starts June 5, according to <a href="http://praguemonitor.com/2012/05/16/finance-minister-raths-arrest-puts-drawing-eu-funds-risk">CTK</a>.</p>
<p>Rath has since resigned as governor of Central Bohemia and left the opposition Social Democrat party (CSSD). He was put in prison, along with seven others, by a judge over fears he would flee or influence witnesses.</p>
<p>Rath is the first MP to be held in prison since 1998 in the Czech Republic, <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/05/16/uk-czech-politics-corruption-idUKBRE84F0UL20120516">Reuters</a> reports. The incident not only has national consequences, coming at a time of public outrage against corruption and recession, but also international consequences: the Czech Republic could now be in danger of losing EU funding, <a href="http://praguemonitor.com/2012/05/16/finance-minister-raths-arrest-puts-drawing-eu-funds-risk">Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek told CTK</a> on Sunday.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/david-rath-czechslovakia-2012-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-government-austerity-karolina-peake-vit-barta-2012-4Austerity And Corruption Are On The Verge Of Killing The Czech Governmenthttp://www.businessinsider.com/czech-government-austerity-karolina-peake-vit-barta-2012-4
Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:22:49 -0400Adam Taylor
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/4f9548caeab8ea8e10000031-401-301/czech-prague-protest.jpg" border="0" alt="Czech Prague Protest" width="401" height="301" /></p><p>We're seeing a big day for European upheaval today, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/marine-le-pen-youth-vote-2012-4">what with the French elections</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dutch-prime-minister-to-offer-resignation-after-austerity-talks-fail-2012-4">the turmoil in Holland.</a></p>
<p>There's another country you should be keeping an eye on &mdash; The Czech Republic.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-22/czech-premier-seeks-partner-to-prevent-vote-as-coalition-breaks">Bloomberg reports</a> that the three ruling parties have agreed to dissolve their coalition government before April 27. Deputy Premier Karolina Peake has til the end of today to find 10 lawmakers to join her in a new government, or the country will be forced to hold snap elections.</p>
<p>Outside of parliament, the situation is tense. On Saturday the country is saw its largest protests since the end of Communism, with some 100,000 taking to the streets to call for an end to austerity measures, <a href="http://www.lidovky.cz/odborarsky-pruvod-vyrazil-od-domu-odboru-na-vaclavske-namesti-p7m-/ln_domov.asp?c=A120421_122418_ln_domov_jkz">Lidovky.cz reports</a>.</p>
<p>The coalition's troubles began when <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-13/czech-court-convicts-government-party-deputy-in-bribery-case.html">Vit Barta, a senior member of VV, the smallest ruling-coalition member, was convicted in a bribery case</a>. Barta was accused of paying a colleague $26,500 to support him and end negative attacks against him.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lidovky.cz/mam-dostatek-poslancu-aby-vlada-prezila-tvrdi-peake-fxh-/ln_domov.asp?c=A120423_114710_ln_domov_ogo">Initial reports suggest Peake has found enough support to survive</a>. We should know by the end of the day.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-government-austerity-karolina-peake-vit-barta-2012-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-eu-fiscal-treaty-2012-1Forget The Brits: Here's Why The Czechs Didn't Ratify The EU Fiscal Treatyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/czech-eu-fiscal-treaty-2012-1
Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:12:00 -0500Sanya Khetani
<p class="p1"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/4f28168ceab8ea9419000012/czech-petr-necas-cameron-sarkozy-eu.jpg" border="0" alt="czech-petr-necas-cameron-sarkozy-eu" /></p><p>The member states of the EU have finally agreed to a treaty designed to end the fiscal crisis and put Europe back on the road to recovery. But not everyone is gung-ho about the new pact. The UK had already rejected the treaty last year, and it has now been joined by the Czech Republic, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16808866">the BBC</a> reports.</p>
<h3 class="p1"><strong>What the treaty is about</strong></h3>
<p class="p1">The aim of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union is much closer co-ordination of budget policy across the EU to prevent the accumulation of excessive debt, which could lead to a second euro crisis. It will oblige signatories to adopt a balanced budget rule in their constitutions, and to create &ldquo;automatic correction mechanisms&rdquo; at the national level, should they overshoot the deficit ceiling, through legislative process, according to <a href="http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/economy/czechs-join-uk-rejecting-eu-fiscal-pact">CTK</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">The treaty will also empower the European Commission (the executive arm of the EU) to scrutinize national budgets of member states party to the pact, and the European Court of Justice will monitor their compliance and impose fines as high as 0.1 percent of the nation's GDP on rule-breakers.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">The pact, which has been agreed to in principle by 25 of the 27 EU member states, will be signed in March.</p>
<h3 class="p1"><strong>What the Czechs say</strong></h3>
<p class="p1">According to Necas, Prague has withheld its acceptance of the treaty for three reasons. At the same time, he has not ruled out signing the treaty in the future.</p>
<p class="p1">The Czech Republic has not yet adopted the euro, but like the other new EU member states, it is committed to doing so. However, Prague has repeatedly said this won't happen soon due to the debt crisis.</p>
<p class="p1">Which is why, like Poland, it can only participate in one eurozone summit a year. And while Poland was pacified with being allowed to attend certain summits, Necas was not.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">"It's very difficult for a country like the Czech Republic to sign this kind of document and to potentially contribute to loans to the International Monetary Fund for eurozone states, when it's participation in negotiations will be purely symbolic," Necas told <a href="http://news.ph.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5823358">AFP</a>. "If they want us to sign up to something, if they want us to pay, we must have full rights at the negotiating table."</p>
<p class="p1">Necas also said the Czech Republic was implementing many things from the pact in its own right, and the treaty was not providing the Czechs with any new benefits.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">So Prague has a few, even more stringent, suggestions of its own to prevent another crisis. "We would like the strict fiscal discipline rules to apply not just to countries which have problems with a deficit in public spending, but also to those which are burdened by a big foreign debt,&rdquo; the Secretary for EU Affairs Vojtěch Belling told <a href="http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/czechs-keep-their-options-open-in-brussels">Radio Prague</a>.</p>
<p class="p1">The third reason for the Czech Republic's reluctance is purely political: there is no consensus in the country on whether the decision to join the pact should be made by Parliament or settled in a national referendum. Even if this was decided, in order to sign the treaty, the prime minister needs the approval of the president, and the eurosceptic President Vaclav Klaus has already said he will not ratify the treaty. Of course, the deeper political reason is the unwillingness of Prague to cede greater powers to Brussels.</p>
<h3 class="p1"><strong>The reaction</strong></h3>
<p class="p1">Necas' decision has widened a rift in a government that has barely survived several near collapses since taking power in 2010.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg has accused him of harming Czech national interest by isolating it from the European mainstream, even threatening to resign, according to the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/bbc" class="hidden_link">BBC</a>.</p>
<p class="p1">However, Necas' position has been supported by the other junior ruling party, Public Affairs (VV).</p>
<p class="p1">French President <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/nicolas-sarkozy" class="hidden_link">Nicolas Sarkozy</a> was surprised at Prague's U-turn on the treaty. "I'm not sufficiently familiar with the ins and outs of what is going on in Prague to be able to understand why what was acceptable in December is no longer acceptable now," he said, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/31/eurozone-czech-idUSL5E8CV1VN20120131">Reuters</a> reports.</p>
<h3 class="p1"><strong>What now?</strong></h3>
<p class="p1">The stability of the euro and the success of this rescue effort is crucial to the Czech Republic&rsquo;s export-dependent economy, Radio Prague reports. Which is why the Czech prime minister will probably sign the pact &mdash; eventually &mdash; and push for a greater say for the Czech Republic.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-eu-fiscal-treaty-2012-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/budweiser-buys-czech-brewer-in-bid-to-end-battle-over-budweiser-brand-2012-1Budweiser Buys Czech Brewer In Bid To End Battle Over Budweiser Brandhttp://www.businessinsider.com/budweiser-buys-czech-brewer-in-bid-to-end-battle-over-budweiser-brand-2012-1
Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:36:17 -0500Gavan Reilly
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4c51b86b7f8b9ac307f20000/budweiser.jpg" border="0" alt="budweiser" /></p><p>THE US-BASED brewer of the Budweiser beer has moved a step closer to ending a century-old legal dispute over the right to use the name, after buying a Czech brewery which also uses the brand.</p>
<p><a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/anheuser-busch">Anheuser-Busch</a> &ndash; which markets the better-known &lsquo;Budweiser&rsquo; beer, which is also brewed in Kilkenny &ndash; has bought one of two breweries in the Czech town of Ceske Budejovice, which in the German language was known as &lsquo;Budweis&rsquo;.</p>
<p>Having bought Budejovicky Mestansky Pivovar (BMP), and its own &lsquo;Budweiser Beer&rsquo; brand, Anheuser-Busch has tightened its grip on the name &ndash; potentially bringing the dispute to an end.</p>
<p>Another brewery in Ceske Budejovice &ndash; the better-known &lsquo;Budvar&rsquo; brewery, whose beers are also available in Ireland &ndash; also still claims use of the name, but may also itself be put up for sale in the coming years.</p>
<p>The Budejovicky Budvar brewery was one of the prized assets of the former Czechoslovakian government, <a href="http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/business/companies/us-brewer-boosts-budweiser-title-claims-czech-buy" target="_blank">Czech Position reports</a>, with the trademark dispute becoming more pronounced in the 1970s when the government opted to increase its exports.</p>
<p>The Czech government has long been considering spinning off assets like Budvar, however &ndash; and it&rsquo;s thought that whenever the brewery is sold, most likely through a public flotation, that Anheuser-Busch could step in and buy a significant stake.</p>
<p>Around 120 legal battles have been fought in various countries between Anheuster-Busch and Budvar &ndash; with Budvar usually coming out on top &ndash; and another 40 cases are still alive in courts around the world.</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/100-jobs-to-go-as-diageo-centralises-brewing-in-dublin-326714-Jan2012/">100 jobs to go as Diageo centralises brewing in Dublin &gt;</a></h3>
<p><em><a href="http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/budweiser-buys-czech-brewer-in-bid-to-seal-control-of-budweiser-brand-327520-Jan2012/">This story</a> originally appeared at <a href="http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/">TheJournal.ie</a></em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/budweiser-buys-czech-brewer-in-bid-to-end-battle-over-budweiser-brand-2012-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/a-czech-man-actually-tried-to-smuggle-snakes-on-a-plane-2011-12A Czech Man Actually Tried To Smuggle Snakes On A Planehttp://www.businessinsider.com/a-czech-man-actually-tried-to-smuggle-snakes-on-a-plane-2011-12
Tue, 27 Dec 2011 10:44:12 -0500News Desk
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4e5e344aecad045d0b000009/snake.jpg" border="0" alt="snake" /></p><p>A Czech man trying to board a trans-Atlantic flight with 247 live animals, including poisonous snakes and endangered reptiles,&nbsp;has been arrested at Buenos Aires'&nbsp;Ezeiza Airport.</p>
<p>The man, identified as Karel Abelovsky, 51, was trying to board an Iberia flight for Madrid when baggage X-ray technicians noticed "organic substances moving inside" his bulging suitcase, <a href="http://ph.news.yahoo.com/snakes-plane-averted-argentina-nabs-trafficker-160207141.html">Agence France-Presse reported</a>, citing local media.</p>
<p>More than 200 reptiles, among them 15 venomous vipers, including South American pitvipers, two yaras &mdash; an aggressive species that can grow up to five feet &mdash; and several young boas, were packed in clear plastic containers.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078793/You-snakes-plane-Man-arrested-trying-smuggle-15-venomous-vipers-aboard-luggage.html#ixzz1hgl6VM8w">The Daily Mail reported</a> that Abelovsky may have been part of an exotic animal smuggling ring.</p>
<p>As the AFP wrote:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Some of the animals were reported to be extremely rare and protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.</em></p>
<p>Two of the animals were found dead, likely from lack of oxygen.</p>
<p>The discovery was made on Dec. 7 but a judge only charged Abelovsky with smuggling this week. He faces 10 years in prison if convicted.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/snakes-plane-argentina-customs-buenos-aires-czech">This post </a>originally appeared at <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/">GlobalPost</a><br /></em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-czech-man-actually-tried-to-smuggle-snakes-on-a-plane-2011-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-republic-jedi-2011-1215,000 People In The Czech Republic Say Their Religion Is 'Knights Of The Jedi'http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-republic-jedi-2011-12
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:52:00 -0500Kevin Lincoln
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/4eef65eb69beddb01200005a/yoda-jedi-religion.jpg" border="0" alt="Yoda Jedi religion" /></p><p>The force is strong in the Czech Republic.</p>
<p>In a recent census, more than 15,000 people in the Czech Republic listed their religion as <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/star-wars-knights-jedi-czech-republic-275110?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thr%2Ffilm+%28The+Hollywood+Reporter+-+Movies%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader">"Knights of the Jedi,"</a> the Hollywood Reporter reports.</p>
<p>The Czech Republic's total population is <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ez.html">about 10 million</a>, meaning that Jedis account for approximately .15% of the country. The "religion" takes its name from the warriors of the "Star Wars" films.&nbsp;</p>
<p>This isn't the first time a contingent of Jedis have popped up in a national census. <a href="http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2010/07/does-canada-lead-the-world-in-jedi-knights.html">Canada</a>, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/27/1030053053578.html">Australia</a> and <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&amp;objectid=2352142">New Zealand</a> have also seen large numbers of respondents claiming to be Jedi in their national censuses.</p>
<p>In fact, if the respondents in New Zealand had been counted, they would've been the second-largest religion in the country.</p>
<p>Listing your religion as "Knights of the Jedi" appears to be seen as a protest against the inclusion of a religion category on the national census, though there are those who claim the Jedi religion to be a real one.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/czech-republic-jedi-2011-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/remembering-vaclav-havel--playwright-poet-president-advocate-for-the-individual-2011-12Remembering Vaclav Havel — Playwright, Poet, President, Advocate For 'The Individual'http://www.businessinsider.com/remembering-vaclav-havel--playwright-poet-president-advocate-for-the-individual-2011-12
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:45:02 -0500Robert Marquand
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/4eef5acd69beddd502000013-400-300/vaclav-havel-czech.jpg" border="0" alt="Vaclav Havel Czech" width="400" height="300" /></p><p>&ldquo;People, your government has returned to you.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The words of <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Vaclav+Havel" target="_self" class="inform_link">Vaclav Havel</a>'s&nbsp;1990 New Year&rsquo;s address to what was then <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Czechoslovakia" target="_self" class="inform_link">Czechoslovakia</a> were heard with a mixture of joy and disbelief by crowds holding candles on <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Wenceslas+Square" target="_self" class="inform_link">Wenceslas Square</a>. History had taken a new turn: The Soviets were out and Havel was &ldquo;in the castle&rdquo; in <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Prague" target="_self" class="inform_link">Prague</a>, as president, in a bloodless Velvet Revolution that changed the world in ways completely unforeseen in the West and East.</p>
<p>Impish, shy, a playwright and poet, a friend of both&nbsp;rock and roll stars and physicists, Havel offered not just a voice, but a deeply moral and spiritual vision for human rights and for addressing what he called &ldquo;our crisis of civilizational values.&rdquo;</p>
<div class="promotion-tag">
<p class="promotion-tag-p"><strong>RECOMMENDED</strong>:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/1995/0608/08011.html" target="_blank">A 1995 Monitor interview with Havel</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
</div>
<p>During the Soviet era, he spent years under arrest for&nbsp;dissident writing that detailed in plain language why eastern and central Europeans did not want or deserve a totalitarian system rigged in <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Moscow" target="_self" class="inform_link">Moscow</a> or a&nbsp;daily life based on a steady imposition of lies, fear, conformity, and punishment. The typical Czech &ldquo;greengrocer&rdquo; &ndash; Havel's famous description of the symbolic Czech Everyman &ndash; did not believe Soviet propaganda, but felt helplessly enmeshed in it.</p>
<p>Havel articulated a credo of conscience that he called &ldquo;living in truth.&rdquo; It was a call to take life at its most profound and searching level, come what may. &ldquo;Hope,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.&rdquo;</p>
<p>His concurrent view that &ldquo;consciousness precedes being&rdquo; was a direct challenge to the opposite Marxist dictum that material values are the be-all and end-all of human life. He steadily decried the lack of transcendent ideals in modern times, but did so with an incisiveness that defies easy categorization. &ldquo;Consciousness precedes being, and not the other way around, as the Marxists claim,&rdquo; he said in a speech to the <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/U.S.+Congress" target="_self" class="inform_link">US Congress</a> in 1990. &ldquo;For this reason, the salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness, and in human responsibility. Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will ever change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe towards which this world is headed &ndash; the ecological, social demographic, or general breakdown of civilization &ndash; will be unavoidable.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<div class="promotion-tag">
<p class="promotion-tag-p"><strong>RELATED</strong>:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/0128/Think-you-know-Europe-Take-our-geography-quiz/Question-1" target="_blank">European geography quiz -&nbsp;Think you know Europe?</a>&nbsp;</p>
</div>
<p>Havel passed away Dec. 18, but he remains a truly historic figure, a defining &ldquo;public intellectual&rdquo; who was part <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/South+Africa" target="_self" class="inform_link">South African</a> anti-apartheid champion <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Nelson+Mandela" target="_self" class="inform_link">Nelson Mandela</a>, part Russian dissident <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Andrei+Sakharov" target="_self" class="inform_link">Andrei Sakharov</a>. His words and example live on in such essays as &ldquo;<a href="http://www.vaclavhavel.cz/showtrans.php?cat=clanky&amp;val=72_aj_clanky.html&amp;typ=HTML" target="_blank">The Power of the Powerless</a>,&rdquo; and the &ldquo;<a href="http://libpro.cts.cuni.cz/charta/docs/declaration_of_charter_77.pdf" target="_blank">Charter 77</a>&rdquo; manifesto.</p>
<p>Writing today in the Guardian, Havel's friend&nbsp;<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Timothy+Garton+Ash" target="_self" class="inform_link">Timothy Garton Ash</a> calls him &ldquo;<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/18/vaclav-havel-changed-history1" target="_blank">a defining figure of late 20<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;century Europe</a>. He was not just a dissident; he was the epitome of the dissident, as we came to understand that novel term. He was not just the leader of a velvet revolution; he was the leader of the original velvet revolution, the one that gave us a label applied to many other nonviolent mass protests since 1989.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Havel was born into a bourgeoisie family, and described himself as pudgy and not well-adjusted. Early on, he was attracted to the theater, but his wealthy background meant he could not study at the state school for dramatic arts, so he worked as a stage hand instead. In Prague's artistic circles, he began to write plays, many of which centered on one of his main themes: the importance of human identity. He was drawn to dissident and creative social circles that put him close to the events of the 1968 Prague Spring movement. He spent more than five years in prison and served 14 years as president of Czechoslovakia and later the <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Czech+Republic" target="_self" class="inform_link">Czech Republic</a>. He was deeply opposed to the breakup of Czechoslovakia, and stepped down briefly from the presidency instead of presiding over the split.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Havel&rsquo;s writings helped inspire and partly unfreeze a numbed &ldquo;post-Tiananmen&rdquo; intellectual generation in <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/China" target="_self" class="inform_link">China</a>. While he never won a <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Nobel+Peace+Prize" target="_self" class="inform_link">Nobel Peace Prize</a>, he took great delight in its award last year to <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Liu+Xiaobo" target="_self" class="inform_link">Liu Xiaobo</a>, part of the outlawed pro-democracy Charter 08 movement in China that partly modeled itself after Havel's Charter 77. He was part of a group of intellectuals and writers that showed up at the Chinese embassy in Prague to deliver a letter asking for Mr. Liu&rsquo;s release from prison, only to find that no one at the embassy would open the door.</p>
<p>Havel championed the marginalized and those whose plight fell below the media radar: the persecuted Roma people, or gypsies, in Europe, North Koreans imprisoned in labor camps, the Tibetan people, Burmese dissident <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Aung+San+Suu+Kyi" target="_self" class="inform_link">Aung San Suu Kyi</a>. He advocated Western military intervention in <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Bosnia+and+Herzegovina" target="_self" class="inform_link">Bosnia</a> to stop ethnic cleansing and initially supported the war in <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Iraq" target="_self" class="inform_link">Iraq</a>, although he quickly soured on it.</p>
<p>Just last month, Havel met the <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Dalai+Lama" target="_self" class="inform_link">Dalai Lama</a>. Days before his death, he criticized the current Russian regime as a farce of democracy, writing in Russian newspaper <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Novaya+Gazeta" target="_self" class="inform_link">Novaya Gazeta</a> on behalf of ordinary Russians that, &ldquo;There can be no talk of democracy as long as the leaders of the state insult the dignity of citizens, control the judiciary, the mass media and manipulate election results.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/1995/0608/08011.html" target="_blank">an interview with The Christian Science Monitor in 1995</a>, Havel expounded on why he had chosen building &ldquo;civil society&rdquo; as his main theme after the cold war. "Western experts don't realize how basic a tool for totalitarian society was the destruction of civil society. An unbelievable effort was made not to allow people to form grassroots and humanitarian groups, private circles. The secret police knew such groups bring some feeling of freedom, which is why I stress so much in our present Czech environment the necessity to reconstruct civil society."</p>
<p>Mr. Garton Ash today, referencing the crisis that Europe now finds itself in as a political and economic union, says, &ldquo;One can only cry: &lsquo;Havel! Europe hath need of thee!&rdquo;</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/1219/Vaclav-Havel-playwright-poet-president-advocate-for-the-individual">This post </a>originally appeared at <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/">The Christian Science Monitor</a></em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/remembering-vaclav-havel--playwright-poet-president-advocate-for-the-individual-2011-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/this-gang-of-european-seniors-were-smuggling-nuclear-fuel-to-fund-their-retirements-2011-12A Gang Of Eastern European Seniors Was Caught Trying To Sell Off Old Nuclear Fuelhttp://www.businessinsider.com/this-gang-of-european-seniors-were-smuggling-nuclear-fuel-to-fund-their-retirements-2011-12
Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:23:00 -0500Business New Europe
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4ed6982069beddac49000018/old-man-elderly-retirement.jpg" border="0" alt="old-man-elderly-retirement" /></p><p>If ever proof was needed that the pension systems in Central Europe require urgent reform, then the arrest of a gang of pensioners in Slovakia for attempting to smuggle nuclear materials may be it.</p>
<p>Police in Slovakia announced on December 15 that they have arrested seven members of what is being branded a "pensioners club" for hawking radioactive substances, believed to be sourced from the former Soviet Union. Slovak Police President Jaroslav Spisiak said that the materials had not entered the country, but that the gang members had taken photos of it and sent them out to prospective buyers in the hope of making a cool &euro;500,000.</p>
<p>In a statement, the Slovak police said that the leader of the gang, which has been under surveillance since 2009 according to <em>AP</em>, was a 71-year-old Czech, whilst his Slovak accomplices were aged between 52 to 61. The suspects face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty of illegally trading in radioactive materials.</p>
<p>"They have been charged with the criminal acts of illegal production and possession of nuclear material, radioactive materials, highly dangerous chemical substances and biologically aggressive substances and toxins," the statement reads. <br /> <br />Czech state attorney Roman Kafka said, according to CTK: "The group originally wanted to sell the substance on the territory of the Czech Republic. It was later found out that the related negotiations and the handing over of the substance were to take place on the territory of the Slovak Republic." <br /> <br />"It was a group of persons whom we could call a 'pensioners club' because the main organizer is 71 years old and the other members are aged 52 to 61," Spisiak said. <br /> <br />The Slovak police &ndash; who last dealt with suspected nuclear smuggling in 2007 when it investigated a suspected $1m deal for enriched uranium - arrested the group members in late November and early December.</p>
<p><em>This <a href="http://www.bne.eu/story3133" target="_blank">post</a> originally appeared in <a href="http://www.bne.eu/" target="_blank">Business New Europe</a>.</em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-gang-of-european-seniors-were-smuggling-nuclear-fuel-to-fund-their-retirements-2011-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>